Police: Offender posing as child took kids home

updated 2:35 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2007

PHOENIX - A convicted sex offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in Arizona schools brought home children that had joined a skateboarding club he started in Payson in northern Arizona, police said.

None of the children said they had been victimized, authorities said Friday. But in a Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office report, a girl accused 29-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick III of grabbing her buttocks at a charter school in Prescott Valley, 90 miles north of Phoenix.

It was unclear whether the girl’s claims are related to an assault charge against him.

Rodreick was arrested last week when school officials at a charter school in nearby Chino Valley questioned his true age, the authenticity of his birth certificate and other enrollment documents.

During his two years in Arizona, records show Rodreick enrolled in four charter schools posing as a 12- or 13-year-old. Authorities said Rodreick shaved and wore pancake makeup to help him appear younger, convincing teachers, students and administrators that he was a young boy named Casey.

“I observed stubble through his makeup. I told Rodreick 12-year-olds don’t usually have a mustache,” Sgt. Luis Huante wrote in the report obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.

Skateboarding club
Police Sgt. Tom Tieman said Rodreick lived in Payson for six to eight months in 2005 and 2006. While living there, he started a skateboarding club, Tieman said.

He said Rodreick recruited members for the club at a skate park popular with teenage boys.

Several children between the ages of 13 and 17 joined the club, officials said. On several occasions, two or three of the boys went to the trailer where Rodreick lived to discuss club matters.

In all, Tieman interviewed 12 children who either interacted with Rodreick as club members or as friends of club members. Although Tieman said all of the children and their parents were “disturbed” to learn Rodreick’s true age and background, he said none of the children said they had been victimized.

“As it stands right now, I have no crimes,” Tieman said.

Tieman said he believes the man began the club as a way to find potential victims.

“None of them are victims, but I think he was setting something up for himself for personal pleasure,” Tieman said.

The girl, who attends the YCFA Achieve Academy, told authorities she shrugged off Rodreick’s behavior as immaturity. But when investigators told her that Rodreick was actually 29, she became very upset and started to cry, the report says. She was taken to a counselor.

After later admitting to officers his real name and age, Rodreick told them he never had sex with his classmates or the boys from the skateboarding club, authorities said.

Rodreick declined a request for an interview. His public defender has not returned calls for comment.

Others aided disguise
Rodreick was arrested with 34-year-old Brian J. Nellis, who authorities said was posing as Rodreick’s cousin, and two older men who authorities said were posing as the men’s uncle and grandfather.

Rodreick is charged with 15 criminal counts, including fraud, forgery and failing to register as a sex offender stemming from a 1996 Oklahoma incident in which Rodreick was convicted of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy.

Nellis, Lonnie Eugene Stiffler, 61, and Robert James Snow, 43, have been indicted on various charges, including child pornography and forgery. Nellis and Snow, both convicted sex offenders, were also charged with failing to register with authorities.

When authorities searched the four men’s Chino Valley home, they said they found more than 600 graphic photos and videos of child pornography.

They also said they found a sex tape that depicts Rodreick and a boy between the ages of 10 and 13 having sex in a motel room. Authorities believe the boy in the tape is from Oklahoma, but have not confirmed his identity.

Officials at the Chino Valley school and at charter schools east of Payson and in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, say no children had reported being victimized.

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